Empire Without End
by Rum-and-Nuka
Summary: No matter how hard he tried he couldn't tear his eyes away from her. He couldn't even bring himself away from the void and vacant look of her eyes. "That girl," His mother began with her mouth drawn into a tight line. She reached out and grasped Butch's arm hard and squeezed him so that he'd know she was serious. "That girl has never loved a single thing all her life."
1. Winona

Her name was Winona, and deep beneath the earth in the vault where she lived she was considered to be polite and unassuming, although Butch didn't know why.

She had deep, fiery colored hair and eyebrows that arched high at the ends, making it look like she was constantly frowning. As soon as he learned to speak he made fun of her weird eyebrows, snickering and chiding her whenever she walked into the bright blue light of the vaults classroom.

She would look the other way and pick at her nails when he teased her, never giving him the reaction that one would expect after being personally insulted. Whenever he'd yell things at her the other kids would stare at Winona, leaning forward and awaiting her anger with a baited breath. They would always be disappointed when she gazed at him quietly with a slightly raised brow, and then turned back to whatever unimportant thing she was doing.

Every time she entered a room he tried to ignore the feeling he had, but somewhere Butch knew that her odd appearance wasn't his true problem with her. It was that absence of something behind her eyes.

Winona always wore a strong look of disinterest, no matter who she looked at that or what someone said. Butch would have though it was annoyance if she had ever cared enough to be annoyed.

Her eyes stared right through everything. She didn't look through things in a way that meant she understood them, but in a way that simply meant nothing mattered to her.

The more Butch watched her the more he realized that nothing ever seemed to reach her. When he sat in the back of the classroom during detention he could see Winona standing outside with her father, and he watched him pull her into a hug. Butch had leaned back in his chair and craned his neck to see her eyes, and he saw her watching the clock on the wall, counting the ticking seconds and waiting until she could let him go.

When Butch sat with his friends in the diner in the booth they always claimed for themselves, he saw her sitting with her friend on the worn red bar stools. Winona would sit with her hands folded limply in her lap and every few minutes she would pretend to laugh at something Amata said. She would pry her mouth open to expose her small rows of white teeth and stretch her lips wide, holding up the ends of her mouth in an inhuman and unnatural way that looked like it was taking her a considerable amount of effort to do. She'd sit there posed like that as if she was part of a display. Then a sharp forced laugh rasped from her small lungs, and Butch shifted uncomfortably in his booth as he saw her watching Amata closely while she held up that jaunty smile, and the second Amata glanced away her face relaxed back to its placid state and remained there.

Butch would call her names, kick the back of her chair, and even pull her hair on occasion. It didn't do anything. She would just stare at him with a neutral face and turn away just as quickly.

He tried so hard to get her attention, but Winona was just another person who didn't care and it drove him crazy.

No one else seemed to notice. Amata thought they were friends, their teacher thought she was an outstanding citizen, but Butch knew differently and everyone else would too if anyone ever listened to him.

He saw it in the small polite nods, the tight close-lipped smiles she gave when her father nudged her because she wasn't paying attention to the person talking to her. Butch knew she had never meant a thing she said all her life.

He continued to bully her relentlessly, and at first he did it because he was angry. He hated her and he hated how much her father loved her and he hated her good grades and how beautiful he thought she was. Butch had never acknowledged this, but the motivation behind his torment slowly began wither and change, and then it morphed into something new and unknown to him.

His anger was still there, but as Winona continued to be a mystery he kept teasing her just to try and prove to himself that she had the ability to cry at all.

She didn't laugh and chat like everyone else, she never joked around or did anything that the overseer didn't allow. Winona just existed like a machine carrying out a daily routine, and Butch didn't like it. She seemed so desolate, but she didn't seem to care, which confused and intrigued Butch just as much as it frightened and intimidated him. His mother had said as much when she caught her son watching her.

"Don't go chasing her," she murmured behind the lip of a vodka bottle, "there's nothing to catch."

Butch had taken this as a challenge, and since then he had begun to chase her even more. He couldn't stop and he wouldn't stop until he had her figured out.

Years passed and she still put him on edge just as much as ever. Once they hit puberty Butch came up with a new theory. She was pretty, so maybe she looked through other people because she was so in love with herself that she didn't care about anyone else. He happily accepted this idea, as he thought it meant he could finally get her off his mind. Yet, Butch was proven wrong when he caught a glimpse of her standing in front of a mirror one day after school.

She was applying lipstick with the other girls halfheartedly, standing still as they scurried around in their bright blue vault jumpsuits. As she eased the bright red stick of color across her thin lips her eyes were unfocused and small. Even standing at the mirror they were dead and colorless, just as disinterested as they ever were. Butch squinted hard at her and leaned forward from the column he stood behind. He was searching for something, anything, but he jerked back in fear when Winona flicked the tube closed with a loud snap of her fingers and a quickness that made him step away and slink to his room.

When his mother noticed him watching her from across the dining room she shook her head and furrowed her thin brows at Butch. She reached out to touch him, but he pulled his arm away with a huff and raised his heavy shoulders high around his head.

No matter how hard he tried he couldn't tear his eyes away from her. He had tried to wriggle away, but he was stuck tight on her bright red lips, the sound of her sharp short laughter that she forced out before going silent again. He couldn't even bring himself away from the void and vacant look of her eyes.

"That girl," His mother began with her mouth drawn into a tight line. She reached out and grasped Butch's arm hard and squeezed him so that he'd know she was serious. "That girl has never loved a single thing all her life."

Butch had no idea where his mother got all these ideas about someone she had never even spoken to, but there was a twinge in his stomach that warned him what she said was true.

At the age of sixteen his patience broke, she couldn't get away with this, she couldn't keep pretending like Butch didn't exist.

He had been leaning against the wall with his friends. They had organized themselves into an unruly, makeshift gang, and it made them feel powerful. His friends were confident now, and they had already started yelling things at Winona as she passed, but Butch felt his heart bubble with anger and his right leg moved before he had time to even consider stopping himself.

_Do something._ He thought to himself as he stuck out his foot and tripped her. _Cry, laugh, yell, do something, __**anything**__! _

Winona fell forward and onto the floor, her pale cheek hit the cold metal floor beneath her with a thump. Butch's friends laughed as she lay there and blinked for a second. Amata scrambled beside her and yelled something at Butch, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from Winona.

For that second she was on the ground she just stared at the wall, any reaction gone from her face like someone had switched her off. Then Butch witnessed her switch herself back on, and she got up and gathered her things as if nothing had happened at all. Winona gave him a simple glance that revealed nothing, but then she continued on her way.

Butch felt his blood stop and then surge forward fast. His emotions whirled around him furiously, wriggling in tight circles in his brain until he couldn't produce a single coherent thought. He wanted her to look at him. No one ever looked at him and to have her so blatantly ignore him made him furious.

"Hey!" He screamed at her retreating form before he could keep the words from coming.

Butch stood there with his hands clenched into fists, his heart pounding in his ears and his eyes burning. Amata stopped shot and turned around with wide and shocked eyes, but Winona kept walking.

She continued a few feet before she noticed Amata wasn't following, and Butch heard her sigh before she stopped as well. She turned around slowly and her eyes stopped on him.

"What?" She asked. Her voice was sharp and it pierced through the silence with such force that every person in the hall flinched instinctively.

Her eyes flitted from him, to Amata, then back to him. She was looking right at him, but her eyes were so chillingly blank that Butch suddenly didn't want her to look at him anymore. For a few moments they stood there, staring at each other as he tried to force words from his mouth, but he couldn't manage anything but a strange strangled sound.

He couldn't take this anymore. He couldn't stomach the embarrassment. Butch turned and ran down the hall, away from her. His boots slammed against the floor with loud thumps as he tore down the tunnels with no planned destination.

A closet door stood partly open, beckoning him, and Butch flung himself inside and slammed against the wall. He beat his fists against his knees and swore angrily. He huffed and heaved angry air in and out of his lungs. To his relief no one came after him, especially not her.


	2. Sear

Through the rest of Butch's life in the vault he never stopped watching her, and she never stopped ignoring him. His friends had caught on to how he was always looking at her after a while, and it wasn't long before they started to tease him and insist that he had a crush on her.

Even Paul, who Butch used to accuse of the same thing, chided him for being sweet on Winona.

"You're in love with her, aren't you?" Paul laughed as they sat in the back of the classroom together. The other boys laughed with Paul and turned to Butch with expectant gazes.

Butch glared at them and Paul went silent and looked down, shrinking back into his boots a bit.

"I'm just saying…" He began nervously.

"What would I like about her?" Butch demanded, and Paul glanced to another member of their gang named Wally for help.

Wally grinned at Butch and leaned forward on his desk with a raised brow.

"Her glowing personality?" Wally offered sarcastically. He smacked the gum in his mouth and Butch rolled his eyes.

He crossed his arms tight and shifted his eyes to Winona. She was staring at the board with a pencil and paper in front of her, but she wasn't even writing anything down. She could hear them, he was sure of it, and still she wouldn't even glance his way.

Butch crossed his arms and shook his head. "She doesn't have one." He said, making sure he spoke loud enough for her to hear.

Every time he saw her Butch reminded himself that he hated her, and yet when Winona's father escaped the vault and all hell broke loose the first thing Butch did was look for her. His mother being attacked by radroaches and he had to do something. As soon as he heard her screaming he started running, he never even considered trying to fight them off himself.

Butch hadn't even meant to go after her but he did. He was boiled down to a stammering, blubbering mess as he ran through the halls searching for Winona blindly. Before he knew it there she was, staring at him with those dead eyes and he skidded to a halt to keep from crashing into her.

"You gotta help me… you gotta!" He stammered out, breathless and panicking. He tried and failed to explain himself and she shook her head at him and kept walking.

"Wait!" He cried and she stopped again. "It's… the roaches!" He threw his arm up and gestured wildly.

Winona cocked an impatient eyebrow. Her hair that was usually pinned up in methodical, neat curls was now disheveled around her shoulders. "Use your words." She ordered and Butch pointed to his room meekly.

"My mom needs help." He explained in a rush, terrified that she would leave him.

Winona could hear the pained calls of his mother from down the hall. She swung her oak baseball bat over her shoulder and went after the sound.

Butch followed at her heels, "You're going to help her?" He asked, his voice rising with the anxiety he felt.

Winona ignored him as she walked in and smashed the radroaches into pieces, and then smashed them again into smaller pieces. His mother stared at her with wide eyes as Winona saved her life, and once the roaches were gone she scurried back against the wall like she expected Winona to hit her next.

Winona held out a hand to help her up, but his mother kept her hands safe in her lap. Winona pulled her bloody hand back and was out the door.

"Where are you going now?" Butch asked in a daze. His eyes darted to his frightened mother then back to Winona. He couldn't believe she saved her.

Winona brushed her hair behind her ears gently and then crossed the threshold out the door. She walked with a purpose against his surprised question, like she had also been planning on leaving him behind all her life.

"Wait!" He called, anger flaring up inside him when she didn't even turn around.

He tried to chase after her, but she wouldn't wait for him. Butch followed her down a long hall and around a corner, but when he heard the radroaches long skittering legs he stopped short and shut his eyes instinctively. He heard teeth bite into flesh and he hid himself against a wall. As he tried to regain his breath he heard gunshots and the whacking of a baseball bat.

"Shit…" He murmured. She must have died. There were so many shots. He remained against the wall, as he didn't think he could stand seeing her body. The gunshots stopped and silence filled the room. Butch squeezed his eyes tight, grit his teeth, and rounded the corner slowly.

There were bodies, but none of them were Winona. Three guards lay there dead with wide eyes and dark blood draining out through their nostrils.

Butch felt his stomach heave and he grabbed his head, ruining how carefully he had styled his hair just that morning. He hadn't heard a single sound from her while he was hiding behind the corner, and he wondered if they had even landed a single hit.

A deafening screech filled the vault and Butch knew the only thing that could cause that sound was the vault being opened.

"Son of a bitch." He muttered through clenched teeth as he took a couple shaky breaths. Butch pushed himself forward, stepping carefully around the bodies and mangled corpses of roaches. She didn't get to just leave him behind. He wouldn't let her.

Armored guards flooded the entrance of the vault. They yelled orders as they tried to surround Winona and keep her from leaving. The threats they cried out from dry, frightened throats didn't faze her in the slightest. She continued to walk forward even as they raised their batons. If Butch didn't know her so well he would have thought he saw a glint of excitement in her eyes.

His breath caught in his throat and his heart pounded when she raised her bat and slammed it hard against a guard's head before he could fire. A crack sounded out across the tunnel and the guard fell to the ground limp. Winona spun the bat in her hand, turning around to see who was next.

Another guard ran toward her and she slammed the end of her bat into his gut, when he tried to grab her she darted out of the way with a quickness Butch had never witnessed in his life. She slammed his head down against the cold metal railing with a sickening crunch.

There wasn't a single sign of trepidation as she stepped out of the vault and into the dark tunnel. The remaining guards stepped back, none daring to leave the vault.

A guard rushed to the control panel. He yanked down the metal lever to reseal the vault door and Butch jumped to action. Before anyone could stop him he fled to the tunnel as well and chased Winona down the uneven pathway.

He saw her slip out the door and into a light and he followed without a second thought.

As soon as he was through the door the light blinded him. It burned through his sensitive and sheltered eyes and left him on his knees on the ground, grasping his boiling eyes and trying to keep his cries of pain as quiet as possible. The pain reverberated through every cell in his body until he couldn't remember a single thing. It felt like he had been kneeling there forever, and when the pain only lessened slightly Butch felt terror that it might never go away.

Very slowly he pried his eyes open, and when he squinted up Winona was staring down at him.

"I should have known." She said evenly.

"What?" He asked, taken aback.

"I should have known you'd be the only one dense enough to follow me." She clarified and turned away from him. Winona held her weapon tight and stood tall. With dark eyes she surveyed the wasteland before her with that same unnerving gaze that looked right through everything.

"I'm trying to help you." Butch grunted. He tried to sound tough but it was difficult when his eyes still ached the way they did.

Winona looked down at him, allowing the weakness of his argument to sink in while he was kneeling in the dirt.

Butch stood up and tried to glare at her. "What you think I can't hold my own, nosebleed? That it?"

She took a step closer to him and Butch felt his breath catch in his throat, he had never been this close to her before. Her vacant eyes were even more unnerving up close, and Butch felt a sinking feeling in his gut as he was forced to stare at her empty face. It made him feel sad somehow, and it also made him feel uncomfortable and afraid. He took a step back and Winona took a step forward in response.

"I don't want your help." Winona said and Butch frowned at her.

Butch felt his heart race. "You killed those guards." He murmured, expecting an explanation from her.

She just stared at him like she was waiting for the point. Like what he said wasn't enough.

"You do need my help." He said weakly. Butch had tried with all his might to sound just as firm as her, but his throat caught and his words dropped when he realized that her eyes were still on him. He didn't know why he followed her. All he knew was that he had done it without thinking.

Winona stared at him, unblinking and unfazed. "I don't need anything from you." She told him and then she began walking down the road.

"You saved my mom." Butch blurted out before thinking and Winona stopped for a moment. She kept her back to him as a gust of wind passed between them.

Butch shifted in the spot where he stood. He looked down at his feet and rubbed the back of his neck. "That means I owe you now… right?"

Winona stood there for another moment in silence, her fingers twitched and he saw her narrow shoulders rise and fall in a deep breath.

Then she continued again without a word. Butch watched her walk away, and then glanced back at the vault. He slowly began to follow her through the new and grueling wasteland. Hours went by before she slowed her pace just slightly and waited for him.


End file.
